Saturday, August 27, 2011

Seven participants took part in the activity of discovery this morning. Each were handed trial proofs to study. Their observations were shared with the group.

Click 1 minute video. Participants reported on the paper samples they were handed. Student Maggie saw a person in a forest with green and white colors. Student Linda had a distinctive scene with an ink border. Another saw a field but wondered what the other shapes were about.

Click 1 minute video. Student Dorothy saw three colors on the print she was asked to study. It has yellow, a brown, and turquoise blue, she reported to the group. Student Carl picked out ultramarine blue and an earth green on his sheet.

questionedcomparedlistenedwondered thought about the image, about the artist notes.

Each took turns to roll Speedball ink on the glass palette and onto a wooden block.

Click 2 minute video.

Click video.

Click on two minute video. Student Grace creates monoprint off an uncut wooden block, while Anna makes tiny cuts on her linoleum block.

Three minute video. Student Sue carefully burnishes the original linocut everyone has practiced digging into on today. Her daughter inks her own.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

After doing Moss Creek #1 for the Print Exchange, I sought to add cows by the water. Here are the June pencil sketches in my notebook. Some have black marker added. Double click on image to see it larger.

When I had time to daydream about the design I changed my mind. Perhaps I would use these colors instead: yellow----lt.olive (lit trees)---red brown (pond)---dk green (trees)---lt blue base

Pencil drawings of plants in my neighbor's field gave me plant forms to cut on the linoleum blocks.

I thought I could mix greens using yellow and black, like the days I did when I did the Carrollton mural. But when I mixed both Speedball yellow with black I was disappointed. It produced gray-yellows. The yellow was not as pure as I had hoped. Instead it had a lot of white mixed in to it.

A fellow printmaker gave me an idea. I made thumb-nail smudges of color in a scrapbook, starting with a base Speedball color and adding certain acrylic colors to it. For instance, a yellow Speedball base and an acrylic cerulean blue hue. I took the time, experimented mixing colors, and came up with the charts below. This gave me a ballpark of colors to work from.

In June I finished cutting all the linoleum blocks in the five-block set. Based on my notes I mixed ink and made trial proofs of the linocut (below).

Here are samples of the colors I mixed from that batch. Not all the blocks lined up like I wanted them to.

In July I used ink to make new color schemes (below). I smeared ink on paper. Then, over the course of a couple weeks, I looked at them, thinking, thinking, thinking. At last I picked out the colors I wanted to mix for Afternoon Shade.

This was the scheme I chose. Next I would mix these colors on my brayer palette.

In August I inked and hand-pulled nine individual prints from the five blocks.They would be trial proofs. The nine did not turn out "alike enough" to be an edition.

For alignment purposes the orange block was pushed up from the baseline. (see next photo)

Each time after I inked the yellow portion of the block I placed a paper cutout over it.

The yellow portion and the orange portion were cut on the same block.

They were inked separately.

The block was washed off after a color was finished being used.

After inking the blue block, a paper cutout mask was placed over it before making a print from it.

Click video to see blue block printed. Here is what the block print looked like after that. There are nine prints made like this. Some aligned better than others. This was how I find out how to lay the blocks out on the registration board. Through trial and error.

The green block was inked.

Click on video to see green block printed.

This was what the four colors looked like.

Click on video. Each inked block was washed off in the sink after I was done printing all the prints I was doing for that day. The green block was scrubbed with a brush and tap water. That was what I liked about water soluble ink:)

To make this top color I mixed my blue base with a white base and a dab of Raw Umber acrylic paint from the tube.

Click on video to see ink mixed on brayer palette.

This was the last and top block to be printed on all nine sheets.

Compare the cut design with pencil drawings above.

Can you see which plant patterns I cut out?

Can you see the cow?

How many cows were in the original design?

Of the nine hand-pulled prints two were selected for my woodcut show at the Lincoln Burkholder Project Gallery. The set of nine was not really an edition.They are not all the same, and so I think of them as monoprints, or one-of-a-kind.

Double click on image to see larger. I love the lighter colors.

Afternoon Shade measures 4 by 6 inches. It is a color linocut. It is printed on 75 gsm eucalyptus bond paper. It is in a white mat.

Banner Photo

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grid shows the order that constrains sand amoebas

"THAT PAINTING BRINGS YOU JOY SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT YOU, AND I WOULD FOCUS ON THAT INSTEAD." DR.TANYA W. LAND, nurse practicianer specialist in Carrollton, MO

Cutting Block (Winter Scene)

"HELLO KARL. AS A FRIEND OF CHARLES AND ANITRA STEELE,I HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED TO YOU AND YOUR WORKAND AM ALWAYS INTERESTED IN READING YOUR WRITINGS AND ABOUT YOUR ACTIVITIES.I ESPECIALLY ADMIRE YOUR PERSISTENCE IN "BEING A TRUE ARTIST" IN SMALL CARROLLTON.I'M SURE IT IS SOMETHING THAT YOU PERSONALLY NEED TO DO AND IN WAYS THAT YOU WILL PERHAPS NEVER KNOW ARE AFFECTING MANY IN A POSITIVE WAY.CONTINUE TO HEAL!!"Patt Behler, Jefferson City, MO

sand, packaging, and acrylic paint is seen in this detail of "A Thinking Reed's Response"

"ABOUT YOUR DAD: THE BLESSING THAT CAME INTO HIS LIFE WAS CONCORDIA. THIS SETTING HELPED HIM BECOME THE PERSON HE "BECAME." AND BY SETTING I MEAN THE COLLEGE AND THE CITY OF SEWARD. NO QUESTION ABOUT IT. IT WAS THE PERFECT SPOT FOR HIM." JACK DUENSING, SEWARD, NE.

mixed materials used in "Wired To Hear Your Voice" by Karl Marxhausen, 2002

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owner of "Sundown" from Seward, NE

Welcome. Art is alive in the middle of North America. Ten miles north of the Missouri River, down the road from Moss Creek, I work with a variety of materials. This journal tells you what I am up to with PAINT, COLLAGE, RELIEF PRINTS, MARKERS, and MUSIC. Your comments are welcomed from around the globe. Posts go up every two weeks. Come back often.

plein air acrylic

"SOUNDS LIKE GOD HAS BLESSED YOU WITH YOUR ART. YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION TO MANY!!"sandy quick, kansas city, mo

"HOW COOL IS THAT KARL!! CONGRATULATIONS AND KEEP AT IT - YOU ARE DOING WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WORK."richard hamilton, kansas city, mo

grappling with the neurons in consciousness

"I ADMIRE THE WAY YOU MAKE THE SCENE YOUR OWN. YOU USE ACRYLICS IN A NICE, FLEXIBLE WAY WHICH IS SO DIFFICULT."sheila vaughan, painter, united kingdom

"MAY THE LORD CONTINUE TO INSPIRE YOU!!"adebanji alade,artist, united kingdom

"KARL PAINTS WITH STRONG STROKES - SOMETIMES ALMOST SLASHES. HE SAYS IT ALL, FEARLESSLY, IN A FEW WELL CHOSEN WORDS FROM HIS PALETTE. HIS SUBJECTS ARE SIMPLE EVERYDAY THINGS THAT HOLD THE GREAT PLEASURES." phil chadwick, painter, ontario